The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey Through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows

by Kent Nerburn

Book Overview

A note is left on a car windshield, an old dog dies, and Kent Nerburn finds himself back on the Lakota reservation where he traveled more than a decade before with a tribal elder named Dan. The touching, funny, and haunting journey that ensues goes deep into reservation boarding-school mysteries, the dark confines of sweat lodges, and isolated Native homesteads far back in the Dakota hills in search of ghosts that have haunted Dan since childhood...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1577315782
• ISBN13: 9781577315780
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: New World Library
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Another hit from Kent Nerburn

I have never been disappointed in one of Kent Nerburn's books, they are fiction but very factual concerning points of history. I recommend this book very highly. They make you feel as tho you are right there listening to an elder Indian as he talks about what he has seen and experienced in his life. We're never to old to learn and its entertaining as well.

Another awesome read.

Read Neither Wolf Nor Dog first and follow with this. Both move wonderfully. Great storylines that draw you right in .... you will laugh, cry, hurt and most of all learn and hopefully grow. I finished this in a couple of days and handed it on to my husband who is almost finished. Makes me sad to finish, but both you can pick up and reread.

An emotionally exhausting mystery

"Wolf At Twilight" is as much a gift as an emotionally exhausting journey that finds you smiling through your tears. For those who learned from the road trip of "Neither Wolf Nor Dog", "Twilight" continues the story with a mystery that Nerburn is drawn through his sense of duty and inability to say no to help solve. Through Nerburn we are allowed a privileged rare glimpse further into the life and teachings of Dan, a Lakota elder, as the seemingly futile search for his sister Yellow Bird gains intensity. The trust between Nerburn, a white man, and Dan and friends is rare and palpable. A true story that has as much mystery, humor, history, suspense, disbelief, chaos and calm as any I've ever read. I couldn't put it down - embarrassed and saddened at the attempted genocide, bolstered by the knowledge of survival and triumph, frustrated by lack of knowledge, entertained by Charles Bronson and the rich colorful characters, and humbled to rediscover I should talk less and listen more, I emerged with profound send of warmth and renewed faith and a strong desire for more. You won't find a better read for wisdom, ethnic and cultural diversity, spirituality, and colorful complex human behavior in it's simplest form interwoven with mystery and humor. "Wolf At Twilight" should be required reading for parents and teens alike - a true gift to be shared. Thank you Dan and friends and thank you Kent Nerburn.

An American Masterpiece

Dan, the Lakota Elder who we met in Kent Nerburn's nationally acclaimed book "Neither Wolf Nor Dog", reconnects with Kent via a mysterious note attached to a tobacco pouch that says, simply, "Fatback's dead." "The Wolf at Twilight", a "novelized non-fiction" account of Kent's second encounter with Dan, unmasks the dynamically complicated relationship between a white American and a Dakota Indian. Nerburn creates this remarkable partnership through humor, gentle understanding, wisdom, historical revelation, suspense, full embodiment of real people, and his personal journey through the colorful lives of the Lakota people. The Lakota Elder, Dan, has an abiding trust for Nerburn, not because he can pay for the gas, motel rooms and meals, but because Kent has proven his genuine understanding of the Native people through an earlier book project with the children and elders of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, "To Walk the Red Road: Memories of the Red Lake Ojibwe." It's been many years since Kent and Dan shared an adventure together on the sprawling plains of the Dakotas in "Neither Wolf Nor Dog". But, a cryptic note and a strong sense of duty (and some remorse) again send Nerburn on the road with Dan and Grover through the sprawling plains of the Dakotas. There is a colorful collection of Native characters embedded in this excursion including Fatback, Dan's dead dog who Dan has preserved in a freezer for Nerburn to bury; Grover, Dan's crusty, intrepid friend and protector; Wenonah, Dan's granddaughter who makes it clear to Nerburn that he better not disappoint her grandfather; young Native relatives and friends practicing the traditional ways of the Lakota; and small town Americans responding to the confusing juxtaposition of the modern world and an ancient way of life. Nerburn is the student (and sometimes the stooge); Dan is the teacher. Throughout the book, Dan the Elder practices the traditional indigenous pedagogy passed on to him by the many teachers before him. We are reminded constantly, at the expense of Kent's pride, to stop talking and just listen. He asks Nerburn to engage not only his ears in the listening process, but all his senses. Many scenes in the book are masterfully descriptive in their sensory sensitivity. But, Kent also accesses the deep sensing of the forces of nature and brings us into the world of the unseen. Dan is the ever patient but desperate pedagogue. He must get the message to Nerburn. Dan trusts Kent with the responsibility to pass on the information and experiences of his life. It is a life that is fading quickly and Dan needs Nerburn to just do what he's told. We can learn from Dan many of the traditional teaching techniques that worked just fine for thousands of years before the arrival of the Black Book. If Dan can bring Kerburn to understand that the sacred is in everything, they can travel through the unseen world of the spirit guides who will lead them to Dan's long-lost sister, Yellow Bird, and